Mike Green not making the trip to WInnipeg

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2013-03-01 18:51

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Mike Green aggravated his groin injury in Wednesday night’s 4-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers and will not make the team’s trip to Winnipeg to face the Jets Saturday night, Capitals coach Adam Oates said.

Green sat out three games with a groin injury last week and said he felt “100 percent” before returning to the lineup Tuesday night against the Carolina Hurricanes.

He logged 21:54 against Carolina and 22:14 against the Flyers.

“It’s just not quite feeling right,” Oates said. “He played a couple games, got hit a little bit. It’s just not quite right so he’s going to take a step back until he heals.”

Green missed 41 games last season when a groin injury led to sports hernia surgery.

“It’s concerning because of his past history,” Oates said. “We need to really get this correct.”

Rookie Tomas Kundratek is expected to replace Green on a top defense pairing with Karl Alzner. John Erskine and John Carlson will play on the second unit and Jeff Schultz and Tom Poti on the third.

Oates indicated a few extra hits in Philadelphia was enough to aggravate Green’s injury.

“It’s the type of injury where you think you’re good until you get truly bumped,” Oates said. “For coaches it’s always a tough one because we talked about playing seven D in case he gets bumped on the first shift. Sometimes it’s hard to let your guard down.”